plantar faciitis will not go away! Any tricks you used to get rid of it?

I'll say it again. HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY RHUS TOX STRENGTH 200C.

I always just roll with a tennis ball when I get any flares. Seems to work pretty fine. I would think the supple-ness of the tennis ball would be more therapeutic than a hard golf ball.

I am on concrete floors all day at work and got it soon after I started my current job (a few years ago).

First of all I found some work boots that were good--I have been buying Merrell boots, and swear by them even though I wish I could buy something made in USA.

Secondly I buy 'Sofsole' heat molded insoles-- you put them in the oven a coupe minutes to heat them up, then stand in them so that they mold to your feet. Perhaps not as good as a custom orthotic, but the custom orthotics cost about $400 from what I'm told. The sofsoles work for me. There are a few other heat-molded insoles out there but Sofsole is what they carry my retailer.

Last of all I do the 'toe crawl' where you stand barefoot on a hard floor (eg wood or linoleum) and pull yourself forward by your toes, kind of 'inch-worm' style. All this has kept my PF from returning for the past five years even though I still work on concrete floors all day. Maybe not a cure, but prevention for the future.

PS. 3 months is not a long time, PF-wise. Oh yeah last but not least, try to avoid doing your training on pavement if possible. Grass or dirt is much better for feet and joints both.

Years ago, I had it 18 months pretty bad. 1 day doing a hill workout, it completely vanished while running the hill- never to return. I could actually "feel" the pain go away.

plantar longus wrote:

I have no health insurance, so doctor is out of the question.

Just curious... what do you do when your car is out of warranty and breaks down and needs to go to the car doctor (mechanic)? Since there's no third party mechanic insurance, how do you pay for it?

I would think seeing a podiatrist is probably going to cost you about as much as getting your car fixed. Might even be cheaper?

moron dat later wrote:

http://footloose.runnersworld.com/2009/04/to-prevent-leg-injuries-look-to-the-hips-not-the-feet.html

I never had any foot injuries (except a stress fracture after a marathon) until this summer when I felt my left arch go into spasms while I was driving. I didn't think much about it and went for a run the next day. At the end of 7 or 8 miles, my right arch tightened up at the end of the run. I took a couple days off and went to run a 5k. I warmed up about 4 miles and felt some tightness but not too bad and the race was eventually cancelled because of lightning. The following morning, I entered a 15k trail run and strained or tore the plantar fascia. It was then I started to try to find all the info I could. I work on my feet 8-12 hours a day and I started noticing that when I did different things, the muscles in both arches would tighten up like a ball. When I bent over, my back was really tight so when I stretched it out, the pain in my arches would dissipate.

With the research I have done, I believe the problem is in the flexor digitorum brevis. The nerve that innervates this muscle is the medial plantar nerve which is a division of the tibial nerve, and further a division of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve can be irritated in many ways including piriformis syndrome. The following is from Wiki

"Inactive gluteal muscles also facilitate development of the syndrome.[citation needed] These are important in both hip extension and in aiding the piriformis in external rotation of the femur. A major cause for inactive gluteals is unwanted reciprocal inhibition from overactive hip flexors (psoas major, iliacus, and rectus femoris). This imbalance usually occurs where the hip flexors have been trained to be too short and tight, such as when someone sits with hips flexed, as in sitting all day at work. This deprives the gluteals of activation, and the synergists to the gluteals (hamstrings, adductor magnus, and piriformis) then have to perform extra roles they were not designed to do. Resulting hypertrophy of the piriformis then produces the typical symptoms."

Another cause of piriformis syndrome is overpronation of the feet which causes the piriformis to activate to prevent over-rotation of the knee. This leads to overuse and tightness of the piriformis muscle.

I believe that the main culprit in my arch pain is psoas muscles being too tight and going into spasms. I have been stretching the psoas a few times a day and have seemed to be keeping the arch tightness at bay.

Just another note about some believing PF is caused by tight calf muscles. I don't think this is true as I believe the tight calf muscles are merely another symptom of the sciatic nerve irritation that happens at the same time as the symptoms of PF.

You, my friend, are spot on. I have a pinched sciatic nerve (still trying to figure out the source of that... bulged disk, pirifomis, etc) and HORRIBLE pf. The 2 are NO DOUBT related. There is zero doubt in my mind.

Conto wrote:

You, my friend, are spot on. I have a pinched sciatic nerve (still trying to figure out the source of that... bulged disk, pirifomis, etc) and HORRIBLE pf. The 2 are NO DOUBT related. There is zero doubt in my mind.

If it is tight psoas muscles, try this simple stretch at the bottom of the page.

Make sure to stretch your calf muscles.

Avoid running on hard surfaces.

Make sure the your shoe laces are not too tight.

Don't do any type of fast running.

PF is a really weird thing. What works miracles for one runner will be useless for someone else and may even aggravate the situation. The best thing is to try everything mentioned here and something might click for you.

Personally, I think that strengthening my hip abductors with a gym hip abductor machine helped a lot. I found that although pool running is often recommended, it actually was making my PF worse by forcing the foot into a bad position simply by the water forcing the foot back. I was actually aggravating the injury every time I did pool running which is another example of how you should experiment to see what works for you and what doesnt. I found that the Powerstep Pinnacle insole helped a lot. I have several pair and wear them in my running shoes as well as my walking shoes. When I get out of bed in the AM, I step right into shoes with the Powerstep insoles in them. The foot is very vulnerable to injury after a night's sleep because its often in a bad position at night. If you dont have an insole getting out of bed, you will reinjure the foot every morning.

Also, try step up exercises to stretch the PF, strengthen the soleus, gastrocs and achilles and self massage those areas with your thumbs often. A visit to a good massage therapist will really help also, someone who knows masso fascial massage but you can do a lot on your own too if you're short on cash.

A few more advices:

DO NOT lift weights

Do not run on hilly terrains

Reduce your mileage

thanks bs detector

I took all your advices and now I run the 22:00 5k .

Used to tdo 16:30 but don't want to chance getting that nasty PF again.

GRASTON TECHNIQUE is phenomenal for treating PF. What it does is break up the fibrous tissue that has formed within the PF tissue, allowing better (and painfree) range of motion in your foot and allows you to rehab the area in a more biomechanically/functionally correct way, therefore getting rid of the root cause of your PF. Check it out... www.grastontechnique.com

Don't walk Barefoot At home. I walk around in Birkenstock sandals all the time. The footbed on their sandals is molded to redu e pressure on the heel. Google Birkenstock and pf if you don't believe me.

I had it about 7 years ago and lasted for about a year; highly annoying. I was able to run and race on it (my first mistake). The first few strides were always the toughest, then it loosened up and I was fine. Finally I really strained it doing a track workout and that was the end of my season. After seeing a good podiatrist, here is what I did but takes some patience. I stopped running for a couple of weeks and cross-trained and took anti-inflammatories for 10-days. I also went to PT 2x per week. When I started to run again it was 1-mile every other day the first week, then 2 miles every other day the second, then 3 miles, etc. After each run stretched my calves with a towel for 5x30 seconds on each calf. Finally, slept with the Strassburg sock for 6 weeks every night. Although it sounds like a lot, it went away and never came back. After a year of running in pain, I got rid of it in 6 weeks and came back strong. Also, invest in a good pair of orthodics.

You don't get rid of Plantar Faciitis, it gets rid of you

First, I'd be certain you're truly dealing with plantar fasciopathy and not one that is not nerve related. The issue is as the longer it goes on, the likelihood of dual pathology increases. In lieu of a physician, do an active straight leg raise, but dorsiflex your ankle prior to raising your leg. It's not perfect, but it's the best you've got.

Then, I'd emphasize clearning dysfunctional movement. You need to provide a stimulus to help facilitate fibroblastic activity and soft tissue reogranization which is something that should include some soft tissue work of sorts and then some movement. I cannot emphasize how important soft tissue work is in this case. If it's work with a foam roll, tennis ball, and golf ball, that's fine in a pinch. Clear everything from the hip down. Work on restoring ankle, hip, and thoracic mobility. Then work on teaching your body to "check" pronation not just at the foot but from the shoulder girdle or higher (everything is connected and pronation is a bodywide mechanism) with some good anti-rotational core training and breath work (planks are a start but not enough) and some direct hip stability work (bridging, clamshells, single leg box squats, etc).

Locally, heel drop progressions (like many would suggest for Achilles tendinopathies) may serve a dual purpose of forcing ST changes and also improving ROM and taking shear-stress off the PF itself during gait.

Then, as best as you can, I'd protect it. In my clinic I use kinesiology taping and leukotaping techniques, but that may not be plausible for you. I'd also encourage you to consider a night splint or sock to maintain your ankle at neutral and toes in slight dorsiflexion. It should be a VERY gentle stretch or you'll wake up in the middle of the night with a sore or numb foot, which is not a good thing, especially if there is a neuro component.

If you can afford to see somebody one or two times for an assessment and treatment do it as there may be some cervical spine position stuff that forces your reflexively to tighten stuff that strains the PF that may need clearing up.

Regards,

Carson Boddicker

www.BoddickerPerformance.com